Lecture 12 - Modernization Theory - Democracy and Economic Development
Comparative Politics - POLS 3311
2024-03-25
Additional Midterm review and questions
Economic and Political Development
- The relationship between democracy and economic development
- Propsed explanations
- The Modernization Theory approachRicher1 countries are more likely to be democratic.
Democratic countries are more likely to be rich.
Why?
General Possibilities:
Democracy leads to economic development.
Economic development leads to democratization.
Something else leads to both.
Investment does not have to involve business or money. Investment is giving up current consumption in order to gain something greater in the future.
What are some examples of investment that do not involve the business and financial investments we usually think of?
Writing: Give an example of a non-business/non-financial investment. Explain how it fits the definition. That is, what is given up now and what is expected to be gained in the future?
Thought questions: Can a government that does not secure financial/business investment be expected to secure other types of investment? Is the effect of security for the very small investor as important as security for the large investor in economic development?
Security for investment
Constraining the executive creates security against the state
- Constraning: Limiting the powerSecurity for investment
Constraining the executive creates security against the state
- Constraning: Limiting the power
- The executive: Originally the king or dictator!Security for investment
Constraining the executive creates security against the state
- Constraning: Limiting the power
- The executive: Originally the king or dictator!
- Security: Protection from arbitrary seizure of property or incomeSecurity for investment
Security for investment
Selectorate theory
Democratic leaders satisfy W (winning coalition) with public goods
Improvements in public goods reduce private costs of production
- "You didn't build that." - The private producer DID produce the good, but the public goods provided by the government helped make it possible at much lower cost.“democratic political leaders are just as self-interested as the stationary bandit and will use any expedient to obtain majority support”1
“democratic political leaders are just as self-interested as the stationary bandit and will use any expedient to obtain majority support”1
Making the electorate better off improves re-election chances2
Security for investment
Selectorate theory
Stationary bandit incentives
Modernization theory: economic security allows people to consider nonmaterial desires
Modernization theory: economic security allows people to consider nonmaterial desires
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Modernization theory: economic security allows people to consider nonmaterial desires
Rostow (1960)
The traditional stage
The preconditions for takeoff
The takeoff
The drive to maturity
The age of high-mass consumption
Urbanization
- people moving to urban centers for work
- accelerates with industrialization
- even before industrialization, cities developed self-government systems with proto-democratic elements: guilds, merchant associations, town councilsUrbanization
Widespread education and literacy
- Education and literacy are necessary for economic growth
- Education and literacy are necessary for industrialization
- Education and literacy increase people thinking about their relationship to governmentUrbanization
Widespread education and literacy
Industrialization and advancing technological progress
Rationalization and decline of traditions
- Relative anonymity of urban life
- Decline of traditional social structures
- Association between rationalism and technological progressPOLS3311, Spring 2024, Instructor: Tom Hanna